Monday, February 16, 2009

This is about a 70min video from Umair Hague, called Conflict of Crisis. I'd highly recommend it to all my classmates. It goes against the majority of what we learn in MBA programs, because they typically teach based on examples (cases, companies, etc.) that succeeded over the past 5-20yrs.

Haque's messages are starting to connect with me more and more for a few reasons:

In OpsMgmt, we're reading case after case about how manufacturing jobs and companies are leaving the US because of lower costs. But while the US grew to economic dominance on the backs of these manufacturing giants, we're not necessarily seeing similar prosperity happening in the 3rd-world countries that are taking over this work. Why is this not happening?

The GenY population is not embracing large company ideals and culture, they are bringing their principles to companies and asking why they aren't being embraced.

The "value" created over the last 10yrs is almost completely unsustainable (as we've seen with the last two bubbles; Internet & Credit).

So what does all of this mean? It means the pace of change could potentially start moving much faster than any principles we're learning in B-School today. It means businesses could be in sprint mode all the time, with radical market shifts happening every 5 years. It means you need to keep you mind open to new ideas, and consider looking for ways to focus on the 4 principles Haque mentions. While the examples he gives are still somewhat limited, they are beginning to show the building blocks of what could be the new 21st century economic principles.

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Here are the four pillars of smart growth - for economies, communities, and corporations: